


Amabilis

by BustedFlush



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Aged-up Mabel, F/M, Human Shaped Bill, Non-graphic mention of sex and nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 20:12:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6391633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BustedFlush/pseuds/BustedFlush
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Oh boy. Shooting Star. Baby… And, here we thought I messed up that time we did the thing with the grappling hook and I accidentally set the bed on fire."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amabilis

     "I gotta go,” he says as she sleeps beside him, “I’ll be away for awhile. You’ll see me again, but I don’t… I don’t think you’ll be happy about it. Actually, I know you won’t be.”

 

     Bill knows lots of things. Lots of things. 

 

     But, not everything. Not some important things.

 

     He hadn’t known, for instance, about after their first time. How, as he lay caught in a tangle of sheets and Mabel, she would start to shake again, only with laughter. And, how she’d manage to slide up even closer against him. How her breath would be hot against his neck, and how her voice, soft in his ear, would start singing. Singing some silly little song about would he like to swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar, and be…

                             

_( … and be better off than you are… )_

 

     He hadn’t known. Just like he hadn’t known how a silly little song sung softly in his ear would be what sealed the deal. Done. _Finito_. All bets off. A new truth in his universe. Or what was as close to a truth as Bill could ever have.

_( Eenie…_

_Meenie…_

_Miney…_

_**You.** )_

 

     Only, now…

 

     “Something’s coming. A deal I made. It’s been in the works for awhile. Since before… since before you and I… before we… And, I’ve tried to… to find a way to… But…”

 

     He breaks off. Sits up. Rests his arms on his knees. His shoulders shake, and he makes a noise that could be laughter. Eventually, it is. Laughter. Steady, quiet, and quite, quite insane. He drags his hand over his face and turns to look at her. The saying ‘his grin stretched from ear to ear’ is rarely so literal.

 

     “Hhhhh…man. Oh boy. Shooting Star. Baby… And, here we thought I messed up that time we did the thing with the grappling hook and I accidentally set the bed on fire.”

 

     He brushes her hair away from her face, combs it behind the smooth, warm ball of her shoulder, then cups the back of her head in his palm.

 

     “Whatever you’ve got in here, kid, it knows how to color outside the lines. How to look around the edges. So, I think you’re gonna be okay. Even with… Even if…”

 

     Her right hand is curled in a loose fist and rests in front of her face. He takes it in his own. Though, not in a fingers-twined lover’s clasp. What he’s doing looks more like a handshake.

 

     “There’s this book,” he begins, “Normally, I don’t go for the stuff you meat sacks come up with. It’s all strictly amateur hour. But, this one… well, let’s just say it gets at least as much right as it gets wrong…”

 

     His grin, against all probability, stretches wider.

 

     “Also doesn’t hurt that yours truly has a starring role. Sort of. Anyhow, it’s about this devilishly clever guy who heads to Moscow with some friends and throws the party of the century… and there’s this bit, these lines about how a world full of pure light might sound like a good idea, but everything living casts a shadow. And, that’s what I want you to do. No matter what. You keep on casting shadows.”

 

     Slowly, he runs his thumb over the bridge of her knuckles, index to pinkie. A gentle blue flame follows in its trail.

 

     “So, whatcha say, Shooting Star? We got a deal?”

 

     His eyes widen and his grin snaps away like a broken elastic band. For the briefest, briefest of instants he swears he sees the flames on her skin rise. His eyes jump to her face. She still looks like she’s sleeping.

 

     “Mabel? Baby?”

 

     Nothing. Not even a change in her breath.

 

     Bill frowns and stares at their still joined hands. It doesn’t feel like they’ve just made a deal. But, neither does it feel like nothing at all has passed between them. True, there are rules to these things, but Bill’s played cards with this woman. He knows how her mind can take rules and weave them into whatever she needs them to be, but surely not while she’s unconscious, and…

 

     …And, he’s out of time. Gently, he places her hand back down beside her face. One moment, he’s next to her on the bed. The next, he stands, nude, beside it. The next, there is a suit of clothes on his body, an obsidian cane in his hands. His eyes never leave her. 

 

     There are certain things even – or perhaps especially – beings of pure energy with no known weaknesses can not express. They can come close, though. 

 

     They can come close.

 

     “You live up to your name, kid,” he says, “More than you’ll ever know.”

 

     And, then, he is gone.

##                                                       *******

_Mabel, the name, is a diminutive of the Latin, Amabel, which is, itself, the feminine form of Amabilis._ _There are many variants – Annabelle, Amabilia, Mab, May. But all share the same meaning: that which inspires love._

##  *******

 

     “…Bill?”

**Author's Note:**

> The book Bill rambles about is 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov. Amazing read, 10/10, Would Recommend.


End file.
